Pride of Dixie
by AmericanHero36
Summary: Deep in the heart of Nashville lies an old steam engine, the last of his kind from his own railroad. He had been sitting around in a park for nearly seventy years now with seemingly no chance of escape and all hope is lost. But if you come to talk he'll tell you all about his life from when he was free, from when he was useful! Sit back and enjoy the life of Jack, AKA NC&StL J3 576


Nashville, a lovely town with a long history of music, the Greek parthenos, and even transportation. Today it is the home of two very big railroads, some short lines, its own commuter train service which is rare in the south except in very large cities like Atlanta, and even its own railroad museum. The Tennessee Central, named after the popular railroad that connected Nashville to Knoxville. But in the heart of the city lies Centennial Park where in this summer 2015 stood an old, lonely steam locomotive. For many years he has been here with only a former Tennessee Air Guard F-86L Sabre fighter jet to keep him company, and that guy wasn't even facing the engine. Often times he would get visitors and he would always put up a brave face but truth be told, sometimes he wished he was scrapped like all of his brothers and sisters of the Nashville, Chattanooga, & St. Louis Railroad J3 class 4-8-4 "Dixies" or at the very least been donated to Chattanooga instead of Nashville as that town always loved its railroading more than even the big Atlanta did, maybe then he would have had a chance to run again under his own steam. But alas, here he was standing under a roof that was only just built in 2009 when he had been in that same spot since 1953. The engine groaned himself awake when a reflection of the bright, morning sunlight shined right into his eye.

"Typical." He muttered to himself in annoyance.

"Sorry Jack." Called the Sabre. "We both know I can't control the sun."

"Indeed we can't Vince, still you could at least try." The engine in question replied to the sound of chuckling from the Sabre. Then again, that one companion is all an engine needs to stay sane in a cruel world like this. Jack chuckled as well. Later that day, a birthday party came to the nearby tables in the park with lots of kids, one of which noticed Jack standing there alone. He turned and told his mother where he would be and ran off to see the engine. Jack by now had managed to fall asleep again, that it until he felt some weight on his pilot. He opened his deep blue eyes to find a small boy trying to climb onto it but to no avail. Jack smiled at the boy who hadn't noticed that he was awake yet.

"I see you're the type of kid that can get to the jar of cookies from anywhere." He said to him once the kid was off of his pilot to try again. The boy jumped at the surprise and looked up to him.

"Oh, sorry mister train, I didn't mean to wake you up." He said in the typical guilty child manner.

"Please, call me Jack." The engine reassured. "But I do advise against climbing on top of me like that, after all you could trip, fall, and hurt yourself and that would never do."

"Oh okay. So why are you here and not moving? Are you in trouble?" The boy asked. Jack could only laugh.

"No son, I'm not in trouble." He said, but then his face fell. "But I haven't run in a long time sadly, I've sat here for over sixty years now and I imagine I'll be here for sixty more."

"Why is that? Can't you just leave?" The child asked.

"Unfortunately I cannot, you see unlike you I can't move by myself. It takes two men to move me, and that's when I have steam built up, otherwise I would have left long ago."

"Why can't you move by yourself?"

"Ah, now that's the million dollar question, one that I don't think any locomotive like myself can ever answer."

"So why are you here in the first place?"

"I am the last surviving steam engine of my railroad, all of my friends and family are all gone but I was chosen to carry on their legacy in name." Jack paused for a moment and then sighed. "Even if the city of Nashville doesn't care about my well being."

The two continued in this manner for about an hour, Jack giving reasons for his predicament and the kid always asking why. Normal people or engines would get annoyed by this after a while, but not Jack, he was happy to have the long conversation with someone new. As nice company as Vince is, he already knows everything about the Dixie engine and vice versa so there really isn't much to talk about anymore. Jack always enjoyed talking to new people because of this, even though he is a bit pessimistic about his current situation. Eventually, the mother of the boy came to take him home, the child promised to come visit him again soon as he walked away with her. Jack told him goodbye and watched them walk away to their car. After they had gone, he found himself alone again. He decided to go to sleep early and remember all the good times he had on the Nashville, Chattanooga, & St. Louis Railroad.

* * *

 _Nashville, Tennessee. August, 1942:_

The infamously hot summer temperatures of Tennessee were beginning to become more bearable for the people of Nashville. But a lot of them were still nervous or generally unhappy. The United States was in its first full year of the second world war and troop trains were becoming so numerous that most of the railroads had to build or order brand new steam engines. One such company was the Nashville, Chattanooga, & St. Louis Railroad ( NC&St.L, Dixie Line, or NC for short). Today was a special day, for the Dixie Line's first order of the class J3 Dixies to supplement the J2 class Dixies were beginning to arrive from ALCo's Schenectady works. It was a long journey from the northern town and now two of them were being pulled into town via the L&N from Cincinnati, Ohio. They were numbers 575 and 576, the older was still sleeping from the long trip but the younger looked all around excitedly at the sights and sounds of Music City. He had also been asking the L&N engine lots of questions about how things were to be done and she was all too happy to oblige, after all in these days of war, rivalries are best thrown out the window...even if the L&N did technically own the NC for over sixty years now via hostile stock takeover in 1880.

"Now remember Five Seventy Six, passengers must be carried with utmost care, unlike most freight cargo they are very fragile and they get grumpy when they're rattled around."

"And understand which each signal means and watch for speed limit changes." The young engine replied happily.

"Exactly, you're learning fast young one, that will serve you well...unlike your brother who could've been paying attention." The mountain replied with an accusing tone rising around the second half toward number five seventy five who snored in reply, much to five seventy six's amusement. Soon came downtown Nashville and Kayne Ave. Yard. The Dixie engine beamed at the sight, he couldn't wait to start working, and seeing engines from other railroads only added to it. Anyway, the L&N mountain steamed into the yard where a Dixie Line J1 4-8-2 mountain stood waiting. He smiled warmly as the other mountain came to a gentle stop beside him.

"Good morning Florence." He said. "I see you've brought company with you."

His compatriot smiled in return. "Morning Ronald. I have brought you two more of your incoming Dixie friends. You know I'm so glad you guys decided to not call them northerns, it doesn't make any sense for a southern railroad to name an engine like this such a name." She replied, Ronald chuckled.

"Funny thing you mention that, the crews have recently started calling them "gliders". Apparently those fancy timken roller bearings give a very smooth ride.

"Is that the engine that's taking me home?" Came a voice from behind them.

"Why yes five seventy six, this is Ronald, you'll be working with him for the rest of your natural life."

"Aw come on now, you say it like it's a bad thing." Ronald laughed as Florence moved off of the two Dixies. He then eyed the two engines, five seventy six was smiling broadly while five seventy five was finally waking up.

"About time you woke up." Five seventy six laughed. "I can't believe you slept all the way here."

"It was easy once that New York Central engine started blabbing about the twenties and thirties and such." Five seventy five retorted. "His voice was so monotone and the subject was so boring it put me to sleep."

"Alright, settle down you two." Ronald butt in as he backed up to take them to the nearby roundhouse. "Now boys, are you aware of what's going on in the world right now?"

"Yes." The two dixies replied in unison. "We're at war with Germany, Japan, and Italy and we're here to help the army win."

"But what is a war? We weren't told what it was." Five Seventy Six added. Florence had already gone by this point to get serviced at the L&N yard in another part of town. Ronald paused briefly as he pulled the two engines to the roundhouse. How could he explain this? It's not something simple like stating what a car was or something like that. Afterall he barely understood it himself...but he knew someone who did.

"I'm probably not the best engine to answer that question, when we get to the round house you can ask Isaiah, one of the consolidations who has lived long enough to know." He said and the pair agreed. But then Five Seventy Six thought of something else.

"So, how do we get names?" He asked.

"Yeah, how do we get names? I have the feeling that addressing each other by number will get real annoying, real fast."

"Oh yeah you're right, well, let me rectify that for you. Five Seventy Five, let's see, most of your brothers names starts with J so, how does...Jeffery sound?"

"Sounds good to me."

"Good, Five Seventy Six, how does… Jack sound?"

"Jack eh? I like it."


End file.
